Titanic
by kairiwilson1
Summary: *In the process of being rewritten*
1. Copyright Claims

"It's right up ahead! See it?"

Within a few seconds, after her eyes adjusted to the scarce ocean light, the majestic deteriorating ship came dimly into view. Ariel squealed giddily.

"How do you find all these ships, Flounder?" she asked excitedly, rushing over to the ship and gently grasping the miraculously firm, rusticle draped, iron railing, gasping in awe.

"Haha, well yanno. I was just swimming around...kinda fast 'cause this shark was kinda nearby...I think he followed me a few hundred yards before finally swimming off...and I found myself here!" Flounder finished his tale, smiling in triumph. "But that's not what I wanted to show you. C'mon, there's something _in_ the ship you'll really love!" The yellow guppy brushed against his mermaid companion, seemingly bravely leading her below deck into the ship, cautiously watching for any sharks, squids, eels, crabs, and plankton.

The interior of the wreak was breathtakingly beautiful; a marine archeologist's haven. The vast majority of the original wooden wall panels, pillars, and beams were long gone, but those that remained silently maintained their anomalous positions, decaying steadily amongst the scattered debris. The iron frames of the ship were either perfectly intact or horribly bent out of proportion, nested within mounds of crusty rusticles, sickly seaweed, and drying coral. Bits of remaining overturned furniture rested gently in their graves, particles of their rotten bits floating motionlessly in the faintly illuminated darkness. Flounder led Ariel up an intact iron stairwell, down a crippled hallway, and through a toppled kitchen. More than once did the little fish have to stop and turn back to gently drag his friend away from the shattered china sleeping on the peeling floor. Carefully, Ariel picked up the porcelain shards, examining the aristocratic designs in wonder, before salvaging a mostly intact plate a d gingerly placing it in her treasure sack.

They continued onwards.

Through temples of toppled chairs, tables, desks, cabinets, past ruined machinery, equipment, fireplaces, china, the two progressed through the graves of forgotten clothing, forgotten dolls, forgotten spectacles, forgotten hopes, and dreams, and lives. Paying a moments respect to a solitary skeleton, miraculously alive and pearly white after all these years, Flounder led Ariel through a crumpled ivory-golden door and up the grand staircase.

"It's one of these rooms here," Flounder said, determinedly hiding his shaking voice. "You'll really like it. Promise!" He quickly swam past the numbered doors, and after a few minutes of swimming in what must have been circles, he slipped through a cracked, decaying doorframe, fearing the structure would collapse at the slightest touch. Ariel excitedly followed in suit, ignoring the fish's protest and brushing her fingers along the remnants of wood.

"I think it's right past here...ah! There!" Flounder ushered the mermaid over towards the crumpling remains of a bookshelf fallen on its side. The wood itself looked so delicate and fragile, as if the lightest tap would leave it to completely crumple to dust. But the bookshelf was not the eye-catcher for the curious little mermaid, rather the scattered debris of book bindings and torn papers surrounding the larger object. Amongst the book remnants, as Flounder proudly pointed out, was a rare, fully intact book hidden in-between the decaying bookshelf and the decaying floorboards. The cover was solid, the binding firm and pages soggily glued together, in Ariel's hands as lash carefully worked to slide it out of its place, gently lowering the bookshelf to the floor as she removed its leg rest.

Just as she was about to open the aging book, Flounder swimming up to get a better view, the outside hallway emblazed in a flash of lue-white light. One moment it was there, the next it was gone, only to return again a moment later, then disappear once more, as though someone-or something-were examining the area. Flounder yelped, hiding himself behind Ariel in her mass of red hair. The mermaid, however, only slightly jumped, more out of surprise than fear, pouting at the interruption to her moment of discovery.

"Who do you suppose...?" She silently swam over to the doorframe, peeking out just a bit despite her fish companion's squeaks of protest. Down the far end of the corridor, where the other half of the parlor suites were missing due to a vicious tear in the section resulting in a massive hole now connecting the suites to the dining area above, navigated a compact red submarine, barely four feet long and two feet wide, softly blowing up sand, debris, and bits of decaying particles with their muffled propellors. Two beams of light stayed fixated in the front, while two searchlights rotated sideways, briefly spotlighting Ariel's face, though the submarine did not seem to notice her. The red submarine moved up and forward, into the first class dining area, though a second submarine, similar in every way to the first one, turned into the hallway.

"Arieeeel!" Flounder whimpered, nudging his friend in the shoulder. She turned to him and gave him that look-that "why are you ruining my fun?" look-and caught the sight of a wide gash in the corner of the next room over, joined to theirs by a doorless frame.

"Let's go, guppy," Ariel teased, placing the book within the safety of her sack and leading the way to their newfound exit. "We can come back later, okay?"

"S-sure," Flounder stuttered, muttering about bow he was not a guppy.

Ariel smiled fondly. "Let's go take this stuff to Scuttle~!"

The two made their 'escape' as the second submarine flashed a beam into their room.

"Did you see that, boss?" asked a female's voice from within the second submarine.

"Looked like a fish to me," commented a younger girl cheerfully.

"We're not here for stray fish," a man's voice, the "Boss," reminded them, "we're here for the-"

"Keychain, we know," the girls mocked him in unison. The boss scowled at them.

"Tifa, go get the rover ready," he ordered.

"Yes sir," the older girl said, halfheartedly saluting him before climbing out of the cockpit into the other half of the submarine, moving stray wires and cords out of her way.

"What about me, Leon~?" the younger girl asked, hopping in place. Leon glanced at her briefly before turning back to the window, staring out at the insides of the wreck.

"Go get me the camera."

"Oh please, you're not gonna record more bullshit over-dramatic dialogue, are you,"she teased, digging out the camera from a duffle bag in the corner. Leon stuck his tongue out at her.

"This is a documentary about what soon will be the greatest discovery of Titanic of all time. The people will eat up the 'bullshit over-dramatic dialogue,'...No, Yuffie, get the smaller camera."

"This one?"

"Yes, thank you."

_"Leon? This is Aeirth. Can you hear me?"_ the radio flickered to life. Yuffie skipped the foot over to the transmitter and turned on the microphone.

"I think the phrase is 'Do you copy,' Aerith," Yuffie joked, grinning.

_"Yes, that's what Cid said as well..."_

"Not to be rude, but what is it, Aerith?" Leon grumbled, setting the camera down on the seat he was supposed to be sitting in, instead taking to crouching on the floor to stick his face in front of the window, and walking over to Yuffie.

Yuffie snickered. "Don't mind him, he's just sore because you interrupted his melodrama time." Leon glared down at the girl, receiving a cheerful grin in reply.

_"Oh, I'm sorry,"_ Aeirth said, sounding as though she truly meant it._ "Cid just wanted me to tell you we've arrived at the piano. He wants the okay to send out the rover."_

"Yeah, that's fine. Tifa's getting ready to send hers out as well," said Leon. "We're just about at the pool, then we'll park and send out ours."

_"Alright. I'll tell Zack to get ready."_

"And don't forget: We're looking for a safe!" Leon shouted before the soft _click_ signaled Aerith put the microphone back in its place, cutting off communication.

Yuffie returned and glanced out the window. "Hey, is that the clearing?" Straight ahead was a seemingly large, empty room, save for overturned reclining deck chairs and tables made from flimsy plastics and the massive thirteen-foot-long, five-foot-wide, indented pool area.

"Yeah, that's it. Go tell ask Tifa if she's ready," Leon grabbed for the camera, quickly powering it on. Yuffie laughed at him as she hopped out of the cockpit. A few steps later, past the ladder leading up to the real cockpit where Cloud was steering the submarine, she stepped up a single stair and sat down next to Tifa, who was sitting on a reasonably comfortable looking brown chair, strapping a series of wires to her arms.

"You get all that?" Yuffie asked, helping her strap the band around her left wrist and forearm.

"Considering this boat-"

"Submarine!" Leon shouted.

"-is tiny beyond all reason, yes, I did get that. Would you get me my eyes? I think they're over in that pile somewhere."

Up in the pilot's cockpit (dubbed "cockpit number two" by Leon who had a brief moment of fail and mistakenly called the "passenger area place thing" the "cockpit" and, no, Yuffie will never let that one go, much to Leon's annoyance), Cloud hovered the submersible over the rusting pool area.

"Remind me why we're literally in the Titanic again?" Cloud asked, setting the controls to auto-hover and opening the ROV port.

"Because we're AWESOME!" Yuffie cheered, pumping her fist in excitement, narrowly missing Tifa's head. Leon shooed her away, telling her to stay by the radio.

"You ready, Tifa?" The girl in question gave a thumbs up. Leon nodded and turned to Cloud. "Go release the rover."

Within a few minutes, after some quick button mashing and careful maneuvering, ROV number 1 was floating freely throughout the wreck, save for the lone cable wire that attached it to Tifa's movements.

"Alright, you're going to go down that hallway there...There, that one! You see it?"

"Yeah I see it, Leon. I see it better than you," Tifa grinned, looking around the wreck through the rover's eyes, whereas Leon was reduced to a compact t.v monitor.

"Leoooon~! Zack's over at the clock~!"

"That's nice, Yuffie. Okay Tifa, you're going to go in the sixth door to your left...You're left, Tifa! Left!"

"My bad! Chill out, will ya?"

"Leoooooon~? Zack wants to know where to go~~~!"

"Tell him to check for the security office!" Leon rubbed his temples and glared at the screen again. "TIFA, WATCH THE DOORFRAME!"

"I'M WATCHING IT!" Tifa carefully eased the rover through the archway, lightly brushing against the crusty doorframe.

"That was too close for comfort," Leon grumbled. Tifa flipped him off. "Move slowly into the bedroom..."

The rover glided around, lighting up the pitch black room with its blue-white lights, examining every part of the room. The room itself was like all the others: rusted all over, overturned rotting furniture, scattered debris of clothing, books, toys, and china, and little hermit fishes who have made the Titanic wreck their home over the past eighty whatever years.

"Leon, give me my arms, I'll start searching under some of the stuff," Tifa said, holding her hands out for the rover's controller arms. With a sigh, he complied, hooking her up before returning the screen.

After a few planks of remaining wood and fallen iron sheets were turned over, clouding up the room with sand and dust, Leon gave his sigh of defeat.

"So it's not in the suite...maybe it fell out of the room..."

"Uh...boss?" Tifa tried to to point, but then remembered she and Leon had two different types of visuals. "Dead center, next to the fireplace. That box covered in rust?"

Leon looked it over skeptically as Tifa floated closer, stretching out her arms to grasp the object. With a frustrated grunt, she managed to turn the box over to reveal-

"YES! Yuffie, tell Cid to meet us outside the ship! We've found it!" Tifa smirked at him, picking up the safe and securing it within her rover.

Within fifteen minutes, Leon and the others were floating near the bow of the ship, waiting for Cid and the others.

"Where are they?" Yuffie whined impatiently, opening expressing the anxiety everyone else felt.

With a silent crash, a new hole was unceremoniously crafted into the shipwreck as the second submarine casually glided out of the ship.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?" Leon shouted into the radio. "YOU JUST DESTROYED TITANIC!"

_"Oh, you mean the hole? Nah, that wasn't me,"_ Cid replied, lazily steering up to meet them.

"I JUST SAW YOU-"

_"That was the shark, I swear!"_

* * *

><p>The moment the the submerged teams stepped back on deck of the research ship, all hell happily broke lose. The research team, having watched the ROV footage from inside the mobile lab, ran out excitedly to greet them. Well, two of the four of them anyway.<p>

"You have got to stop hiring all these girls," Cid scoffed as Leon climbed out of his submarine. Tifa, Cloud, and Zack were carefully carrying the safe over to the deck, while Yuffie and two other girls hopped around them in circles.

Leon shrugged at the sight. "They're very enthusiastic about their jobs."

"Yeah, but they all go apeshit over some sunken ship-" Aerith bapped Cid's head from behind.

"You mean the ship you vandalized?"

"Hey, I ain't the one stealing chests here," he chuckled.

"That's not what I meant!"

Leon walked away from his friend's little argument, joining the others around the safe. "Rikku, how fast do you think you can open it?"

The blonde girl tilted her head and gave a critical glance at the object in question. "Depending on the rust and pressure inside...fifteen minutes? Maaaaybe twenty?" Leon nodded and motioned for everyone else to steer clear of the area as Rikku got to her knees and started working at safely prying off the door.

"Yuna, can you get me my tool set?" Rikku asked her other excited research team member. With a nod, Yuna ran back inside the ship, dragging the two girls standing around outside distantly with her. "Paine! Fuu! Help me find it~!" The three girls ran inside for a few minutes, returning with a red toolbox and sparkling cider.

"This calls for a celebration~!" Yuna cheered, shaking up the bottle. Paine and Fuu shared an eyeroll, though the others cheered in agreement.

"Here," Fuu placed the toolbox next to Rikku, who grinned in thanks and immediately set out to work.

"Yuffie? Where's the camera?" Leon asked after telling Yuna to hold on the celebrating for a moment.

"In the sub~ Don't worry, Leon, I'll get it!" Yuffie quickly scrambled up the ladder into the submersible, returning a few seconds later with the DV camcorder turned on.

Rikku worked determinedly to open the safe, despite the cheering and laughing group around her dancing around in excitement and spilling cider everywhere, a bit of which splashed against her arms.

"Hey, if I wanted to get wet, I'd go down to the wreck myself!" she scowled at them. Yuna patted her on the shoulder.

"How's it coming?"

"Aaaalllmooost got it..." she bit her tongue in concentration. "Alright, I think that does it. Bring out the crane."

Paine held up the crane's hook. "Where does it go?" Rikku frowned and glanced at the safe again.

"Oh, there's no little loopy thing..." she shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to pull it off."

Leon, Cid, and Cloud grabbed at the creases of the door while Zack held the safe down.

Tifa snorted. "Why is it that men think we're incapable of ripping a door off it's hinges?"

"Man points," Fuu stated, crossing her arms. The other girls all laughed in agreement while the boys grit their teeth and ignored them.

The moment the crusty safe door was loosened enough, the water inside aided the boys by violently exploding out of the safe, knocking them back off their feet, the door clanging against the deck. Water, so thick with what appeared to be mud, poured out on deck, bringing a few clumps of what was probably once paper and what was now part of the seemingly muddy water.

Yuffie followed Leon with the camera as he quickly knelt down and eagerly stuck his hand inside the safe after the water finished spilling out. He pulled out a few clumps of muddy paper, no longer recognizable as paper, and a leather bound journal which he tosses to the side. After clearing out the clumps and various stationary items, he frowned, frantically groping around the inside of the safe on all three shelves, in all the corners, even on the top. And yet...

"Shit..."

* * *

><p>"At least we got something out of all that, right?" Aerith tried to comfort Leon, holding the muddy notebook delicately as she cleaned it. Leon merely grunted.<p>

"And we found out it's not in the safe," Yuffie added, stifling her giggles with Rikku. Yuna, Paine, and Zack looked nearly as disappointed as Leon; Fuu and Cloud looked indifferent, while Cid was just...well, Cid.

"You know...I think the last guy who failed to find the Keychain...well...he's not in the business anymore," he teased, earning a glare. The phone on the wall rang.

"Hello?" Zack answered. He stood still for a moment, listening, then nodded at no one but himself and handed the phone over to Leon. "It's our partners, they wanna know how it's going."

"Greeeaaat," Leon scowled, taking the phone and walking away from the group. Yuffie and Rikku snickered.

"Be nice you two," Aerith scolded, lifting up the journal's cover and beginning work on rinsing the pages.

"Don't worry, Sir, there are lots of other places it could be that we haven't even checked yet!" Leon could be heard saying from across the room. Cid moved closer to listen in. Zack, however, took interest in the pages Aerith was cleaning.

"Wait, rinse back up...is that a _boob?_"

"You sound happy, Zack," Tifa smirked, walking in the room closing the door behind her. She caught Leon's eye and gave him a thumbs up, signaling the submarines and rovers were ready for another dive.

"I'm sorry if I'm very appreciative of naked woman," Zack said in his defense. Cid seconded that. Leon rolled his eyes at them, glancing at the screen showing Yuffie's live recording of Aerith's cleaning. He furrowed his brow for a second, staring intently at the picture, ignoring the aggravated voices on the other side of the phone.

"Wait, Aerith, go back up," Leon said, turning to walk up behind her.

"Honestly, if you want to see her breasts, you can wait until I'm finished," she sighed irritably.

"No, I want to see her neck...Cloud, where's the picture of the keychain? Hello? Sir? Yeah, I'll call you right back, I think we've found something." Leon tossed the phone over to Zack, who apologized into the receiver and returned it to it's place. Cloud rushed over from the office, carrying a vintage photograph of the object in question, holding it out to Leon who snatched it unceremoniously.

Leon held up the photo next to the drawing, which Aerith let the water from her mini hose to run over the lady's neck and collar. In the drawing, the lady wore a bare necklace with a rather large, cartoon mouse shaped pendant dangling off a few chain links hooked onto the necklace's band. In the photograph, a rather large, silver cartoon mouse shaped pendent was attached to a few silver chain links and a keychain hook. Aerith quickly rinsed around near the bottom of the page to find the date, April 14th, 1912, and an unrecognizable scribble that was probably the artist's signature. She and Leon exchanged a glance as the others either gathered around them and the drawing or the screen nearby.

"Yuffie, are you recording this?"

* * *

><p><em>"-Live from the wreck site,"<em> the reporter on t.v passed the screen time on to some guy with long brown hair and way too many belts, preaching about how he loved Titanic and the stories within in. An old lady, with pale white hair and bright green eyes, watching the program snorted at his halfhearted words.

"What a load of garbage," she scoffed, reaching for the remote so she could get that trash off her television. She couldn't find it, of course.

"Naminé! Where did the remote go?"

"To the store, I would imagine." A young blonde girl in her teens walked in, a few Dalmatian puppies hit on her heels. "Did you check in the armrest?" The elderly lady did not. She grumbled when there, in the secret compartment within the armrest, lay her t.v remote. Naminé simply smiled warmly at her and went off to the kitchen to feed the puppies.

_"Takes our discovery from yesterday, for example,"_ the heavily belted man continued on the t.v as the old lady glared down at the remote, trying to find the channel button.

"No more new cable boxes," she frowned, hitting a button that raised the volume by accident.

_"This piece of paper has been under water for over eighty years, and thanks to our modern technology, we were able to preserve it in near mint condition..."_

The man rambled on and on about preserving the artifacts of Titanic as the camera zoomed in on the drawing. The lady's eyes widened; the remote lay on the floor, forgotten.

"Holy shit!"

* * *

><p>Day four of the expedition was not nearly as pleasant as the previous three days, and Leon was grateful they did the recording yesterday. The winds were picking up, the storm clouds reeling in, and yet the crew was quickly trying to submerge at least one submarine before the storm hit.<p>

"Alright...steady...keep it steady," Leon instructed, holding up his arms as if that would actually do anything should the submarine snap loose from the crane and crush them all to death.

"Hey Leon!" Yuna called from inside the boat, "Phone call!"

"Can't it wait? We're launching here!"

"Actually I think the correct term would be 'submerging,'" Aerith interjected from the side. Leon scowled at her.

"Trust me when I say you really want to take this call!" At Leon's hesitation, Yuna ran out and ushered him in the room, immediately handing him the phone. "You might have to speak up, she's kinda old."

"Greeeeaaaat," he grumbled, taking the phone. "Hello Miss...?"

_"Larxene,"_ the woman said through the phone.

"Okay Larxene," Leon repeated carefully. "How can I help you?"

_"I was just wondering,"_ she started mockingly, _"if you've found the long lost, overrated, 'Kingdom Keychain' yet."_ She was smirking, Leon was sure. His mouth fell open for a moment. To say he was shocked someone knew about the keychain hunt outside of their sponsors was a little nerving. Yuna, however, grinned smugly at his reaction.

"Told ya~" Yuna teased. "She says she's a survivor and she knows about the keychain and the drawings we found."

Leon nodded, regaining his calm exterior. "You've got my attention, Larxene. Do you know who the lady in the drawing is?" He reply was sharp and to the point.

"Me, dumbass."

* * *

><p>"She's a damn liar!" Cid argued, chasing after Leon and Yuffie as they made their way to the air dock on the ship. "Even if she did survive, she'd be over a hundred by now!"<p>

"A hundred and one next month!" Yuffie giggled excitedly. Cid scowled at her.

"So she's a really _old_ damn liar!"

"Cid, everyone who's supposed to know about that Keychain is either dead or on this ship, but _she_ knows!" Leon shouted over the increasing roar of the helicopter blades; They were descending.

"Alright, how about this for ya?" Cid started again, "Fuu and Paine did some research on her. Apparently she was an actress back in the 20s. An _actress!_ There's your first clue, Sherlock! She's like that Russian babe, Anasteesia!"

"_Anastasia_, you twat!" Yuffie rolled her eyes.

With deafening roars of the helicopter blades and the wind picking up around them, all sound was pretty much lost as the copter landed gently on the ship. The flight crew helped the elderly Larxene out on her wheelchair before tossing out her luggage and piling it on deck.

"Doesn't exactly travel light, does she?" Cid smirked and crossed his arms at the mountain of suitcases and large pocketbooks and bags. Leon ignored him and rushed over to the old lady.

"Hello? Larxene?" he shouted, but she didn't seem to hear or see him. A moment later, after a few Dalmatian puppies hopped out of the helicopter, a young blonde girl hopped out, followed by more puppies. She immediately went to push her frail grandmother's wheelchair.

"Hello, I'm Naminé, her granddaughter," she said as loud as she could over the blades, holding out a hand to Leon, who shook it.

"Great. Just follow that jumping girl over there, she'll take you to your rooms."

"Thank you," Naminé pushed the wheelchair with ease, following after Yuffie. Leon was about to follow after when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Yes, Aerith? What is it?" The girl simply pointed at the helicopter, where numerous Dalmatian puppies were unloading themselves from within, along with two adult Dalmatians, probably the parents. Cid gave a low whistle.

"Maybe all she packed was dog food."

* * *

><p>By the time Leon managed to get down to visit Larxene for the first time, Zack and Cloud had already brought down all her luggage. Naminé was carefully placing picture frames atop the dresser, where she had already transferred all their clothes into the drawers, a d placed about ten dog dishes along the wall and a few dog beds in the empty corners of the room.<p>

"I think we'll be sleeping with twenty or so puppies tonight, Nana. This room is awfully small..." The girl finished arranging the picture frames, oddly pointing away from Larxene's bed and towards the door instead.

"How is everything?" Leon asked, standing in the doorway. Naminé smiled up at him.

"Everything is fine, thank you," she said, picking up a stray puppy and placing him back with the others. At Leon's incredulous look, Larxene smirked.

"What? I simply must travel with my dear pets...and photos...and granddaughter..." She quietly trailed off, absently scratching the mother Dalmatian's head.

Naminé turned to Leon with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, the journey must've really worn her out..."

"That's fine," Leon smiled softly. "If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask." At that, Larxene perked up.

"There is something I'd like," she said.

"Sure. Anything."

"I'd like to see my drawing."

* * *

><p>Fuu was watching over the now cleansed and separated drawings from the journals, each one resting in a container filled with water and preservation chemicals. There were even a few objects-"Salvaged from your suite," Leon stated proudly-though Larxene merely glanced at the objects on her way towards the pictures. She carefully examined all of them; smiling at some, scowling at others, but examining all of them carefully. For some of them, she'd mumble a few reminiscent words to herself, though no one could hear. At the drawing she claimed was hers, she smiled sadly down at it, her eyes immediately straying down towards the signature and date at the bottom. With a sigh. She sat back down on her wheelchair, which Naminé was trailing behind her with.<p>

"Would you like to go back and rest, Nana?" Naminé asked, wheeling Larxene around to face Leon and the crew.

"No, I'm fine," Larxene replied, rubbing her temples. Leon knelt down so he was eye level with her.

"Now can you answer one of my questions, Larxene?" She looked at him expectantly, so he continued. "A few months before the shipwreck, a claim was made for the keychain under absolute secrecy. Could you tell-"

"Marluxia, I would imagine," she snorted. "Last I heard, he shot himself during the Depression."

Leon shot a smug grin at Cid, who flipped him off with a scowl. "That's right. According to the claim, he got that keychain to give to his fiancé. You." Larxene rolled her eyes.

"Don't remind me. I mean, who seriously gives a _keychain_ as an engagement present?" Naminé giggled.

"Nana..."

"Now if you look at the drawing..." Leon pointed over at the monitor, which Aerith turned so Larxene could see it easily. "The drawing with you wearing this keychain is dated April 14th, 1912-"

"Which means if your grandma is who she says she is, she was wearing it the day the ship went down," Cid said gruffly, crossing his arms. Naminé glanced shyly at the drawing.

"Are you sure that's you, Nana?" Larxene smirked at her granddaughter's slightly flushed face.

"Of course! Wasn't I sexy?"

Leon coughed, gaining Larxene's attention again. "Now then, are you ready to go back to Titanic, Larxene? Help us find the long lost keychain?"

Larxene frowned. She glanced around the research room, at all the monitors either showing recapped footage recorded of the wreck-_'Those door were once gold'_-or of the relics they've uncovered and preserved. She blinked away a tear threatening to fall and rubbed at her eyes before dropping her hands all together.

"It's been eighty-four years..." she said.

"That's alright. Take your time and try to remember," Leon placed a recorder on the table between them, turning it on. He nearly froze when Larxene opened her eyes and glared fiercely at him.

"If you want to hear this, then shut the hell up." A few crew members chuckled at Leon's shock, but silenced themselves as he waved her on, urging her to continue.

"It's been eighty-four years...and yet I can still remember everything so vividly, as though it all happened yesterday..."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**_ So let's just get the immediate bullshit questions out of the way:  
>"They don't say that in the movie!"<br>I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my poser level is fairly low. While I do have the script open as a reference, I'm making my own general dialogue to help the characters stay somewhat in character (Larxene is Rose, how in character could that possibly be?). My bad for attempting some originality apart from everyone else's painfully obvious copy-and-paste of the movie onto their word docs so they can change the names. Seriously, I did my research for what other people have written for their Titanic spinoffs.  
>"You say this is a Larxel, but there's no Axel!"<br>Please get a gun and shoot yourself in the head. Seriously.  
>"Why a keychain? What's wrong with the Heart of the Ocean?"<br>I wanted to use a damn keychain, that's why.  
>"Why are you doing Larxel? AkuRoku all the way!"<br>Why the fuck are you reading this then...?  
>"This is on crack! Why? You're killing the story!"<br>I am writing this fic for a friend who HATES Titanic because of it's sappy romance. However, she loves Larxel. So mix Larxel with my crack writing and the Titanic storyline...and...well...I'm having way too much fun writing this. XD_

_Now then, this is the part that introduces the characters no one gives a shit about~ :D Aren't you glad you read it? Next chapter, Axel comes in, Larxene tries to commit suicide, and Demyx is shirtless~ Woo~!_


	2. Suicide's not that RAD

It was fifteen minutes til noon on April 10th, 1912. The sky was a flawless baby blue without a cloud in sight, the sun shining brightly on the thousands of people gathered at the Radiant Garden harbor, staring in awe at the largest passenger ship they had ever seen.

The say the Titanic towered over the port was a severe understatement, for Titanic was a rigorous mountain of red painted iron that stretched far wider and longer than any other ship in it's wake and enormously tall bronze steamers reaching so high in the sky one would think it could bat a star.

Or at least that was what Marluxia was droning on about to Larxene and her uncle during the car ride to the magnificent "ship of dreams." Naturally, her expectations for the monstrous ship were so high, that when she stepped out of the mahogany car, clad in her "most suitable clothes" as dubbed by her pink haired fiancé, and gave a critical eye to the ship, she scoffed.

"It doesn't look much bigger than the Highwind," she said, unimpressed with the overly publicized  
>"unsinkable" ship everyone else was gawking at. She brushed a few of her stray blonde bangs back, earning a disapproving frown from Marluxia, though he didn't say anything on it. Instead, he turned to Larxene's uncle, Ansem (the Wise), as he stepped out of the car and into a puddle.<p>

"Damnit. And these are my best shoes," he cursed at that damn puddle for ruining his best shoes. Scowling, he looked up at the ship, awestruck like nearly everyone else. "So this is the ship they say is unsinkable," he whistled in approval.

"Well it's nice to see someone likes it," Marluxia commented, rolling his eyes at the porter who was persistently trying to tell him that the luggage check in was somewhere not where they were. Not that Marluxia particularly cared. He pulled his wallet out of his coat pocket and pulled out generous amount of munny and plopped it in the man's hand.

"I'm sure you'll be glad to take care of it for us," he grinned at the porter's shocked expression.

"Yes, sir! Of course, sir! If there's anything you need—"

"Good, see Xaldin over there," Marluxia waved towards a large man with dreadlocks, turning away from the awestruck porter and offering his arm to Larxene, which she hesitantly took with a disgruntled frown. "Shall we?"

While Marluxia, Larxene, and Ansem gracefully made their way through the mixed crowd of upper and lower classmen towards the health inspections and other pre-boarding rituals, Xaldin led the porter to the trunk of the car to get the luggage...then to the second car behind them to get more luggage..then to a third. As the porter inwardly groaned at the sight and called over fellow porters for some assistance, Xaldin got out the tickets and read off the multiple suites to which each load of luggage to be delivered. Within ten minutes, the luggage, Ansem, Marluxia, Xaldin, and Larxene were boarding the grandest ship in all the universe to go back home to Twilight Town.

And she hated every second of it.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the pier in a small, yet crowded, bar, the most intense poker game ever played took place. Only four people were played, though several others gathered around to watch in anticipation. Or boredom.

For once, it wasn't even about how much munny was on the line; instead it was two third class tickets on the Titanic. And Roxas's lucky keychain, but that wasn't nearly as important.

"Axeeeel..." the spiky blonde teen whimpered. He looked at his cards and he knew he was going to lose. "I can't afford to lose that keychain. My mom gave it to me!"

"Relax, will ya?" his older spiky redhead companion smirked down at his cards. Nothing a little cheating can't do, right? "What is it with everyone nowadays with keychains anyway?" Roxas simply glared at him. The other two men at the table looked uncomfortable, nervous even. They muttered frustratedly back and forth at each other in a language neither Roxas nor Axel understood, but Axel could tell from the tone that he was probably going to win.

"Alright, boys. Moment of truth. Roxas?" Roxas placed his cards down for all to see, glaring daggers at his friend and sadistically imagining him being violently murdered.

"Nothing," Axel noted.

"Nothing," Roxas repeated darkly, glowering at his "friend." Axel gave a disappointed sigh, then moved on to the next guy.

"Seifer?" The guy in question placed his cards down boldly...though it was painfully obvious she was on the same boat as Roxas. "Nope," Axel said, glancing over at the third guy, "Rai?" Rai, surprisingly, did the best thus far, having a single pair. Seifer almost looked relieved, Roxas looked like he was about to punt a midget, and Axel was forcing himself to keep a solid poker face.

"Oh man," Axel frowned, giving an apologetic look to his young friend. "I'm sorry, Roxas—"

"Sorry? Axel, my mom's _dead!_ That keychain was all I had left of her!"

"No, Rox! I'm sorry 'cause I know you get sea sick and I just won us two tickets on the _Titanic!"_ Axel grinned and slammed his full house down on the table. Seifer and Rai jumped up in a rage, shouting in whatever language they spoke. The customers who put money down at the penniless blokes cheered as they racked in wads of cash from those who were groaning and pulling out their soon-to-be empty wallets. Though nothing could compare to the priceless expressions on Axel and Roxas's faces...except ecstasy, maybe.

"We're going to _Twilight Town!_" Roxas cheered, jumping up excitedly. Grinning victoriously, he snatched up his keychain, a black crown of all keychains, and shoved it into his pocket. In a swift movement, he got out a small pouch and started sliding the munny into it. Axel, however, instantly reached for the tickets and was pulled up roughly by his collar.

"You idiot," Seifer growled, raising his fist threateningly. Axel braced himself, clenching his eyes shut as if that would actually protect him any better than should they be open. But Seifer turned his fist towards his large companion, punching he so fast in the law, poor Rai fell back in his chair and landed harshly on the floor. "I can't believe you bet our tickets!"

Axel simply smirked at them and grabbed the tickets. "You ready, Rox? We're going—"

"To _TWILIGHT TOWN!_" Roxas laughed in excitement. "I can finally try that sea salt ice cream they're so famous for!"

"Ha ha, you sound like a tourist."

"But I will be once I get to Twilight Town~!"

The boy's excitement and laughter was disrupted, though, by an amused chuckle behind the bar. The bartender glanced up at the clock, shook his head with a small smile, then went back to rubbing a glass dry.

"No, the Titanic will be getting to Twilight Town. In five minutes," he mused. Their eyes widened at the deathly sight of the clock and the distance between them and the ship.

"Shit! Let's go!"

* * *

><p>Carrying nothing but a light, brown sack full of all their worldly possessions and the dirty clothes on their backs, Axel and Roxas sprinted through the crowds to the docking port. Axel shoved his way past snobbish first class bastards and innocent curious bystanders, Roxas shouted apologies at Axel's victims while forcing himself to use all his willpower to keep up with his fiery friend. He was focusing so hard on running that the poor blonde boy nearly ran into a tiger—a <em>tiger!<em>—while trying to keep up.

"Man! These crowds are almost as bad as those at DisneyWorld!" Roxas shouted over the roars around them. Axel simply laughed.

"_Nothing's_ worse than the crowds at DisneyWorld! Now hurry up! I thought you said you could run!" The redhead ran with ease through the sea of bodies, dodging porter's lugging around luggage, cars that selfishly decided to plow through the crowds, and even police officers threatening arrest if he kept shoving people aside.

"I'm fourteen!" Roxas groaned, "my legs aren't as long as yours yet!"

"Well you better grow them fast, ''cause I've got the tickets!" Axel cackled madly, slowing down long enough to grab onto Roxas's arm to pull him along faster.

Just as a young officer and a few crew members detached the ramp from the gangway doors, Axel and Roxas ran up.

"Wait, we're passengers!" Axel presented the tickets unceremoniously to the officer, who gave them a skeptical look. He glanced over the tickets, then at the two of them.

"Have you been through the health inspections?" he inquired cautiously.

"Aren't you a little young to be an officer..." Axel peered at the boy's nametag, "Zexion? Did I say that right?" 'Zexion' merely glared at him and handed the tickets back.

"Alright, get on..."

Quickly, Axel and Roxas jumped over the increasing gap between the lowering ramp and the ship and ran through the third class entrance. After they heard the reassuring _THUMP!_ and _CLICK! o_f the door did they go apeshit over their fortunate predicament. Through the small, cramped, freshly white-painted third class hallways, they found themselves pushed up through the flow of the crowd, coming out to the bright sunlight on the ship deck. Grinning ear to ear, the two ran over and pushed their way to the rail.

"Goodbye! I'll miss you!" Axel shouted along with the others, waving wildly at the crowds still at the dock, who waved enviously back. Roxas laughed at him.

"Who're you waving at?"

"No one I know," the redhead chuckled. "That's not the point, though." He went back to waving his final goodbyes to the crowd, bullshitting them with heartfelt words they couldn't hear anyways. Roxas raised an eyebrow, but he mimicked his friend anyway.

"Goodbye! I'll never forget you!"

* * *

><p>Within an hour the ship deck cleared of passengers. Instead, everyone was roaming the hallways, pushing past each other to find their rooms. The majority of the third class passengers didn't even seem to be able to read English as they had their "whatever-to-English- dictionaries opened up and carefully examined the signs along the corridors, apologizing in strange tongues as they slide past people. Roxas watched them, and his surroundings, in awe, trusting Axel to drag him through the labyrinth and find their room. Axel, however, didn't seem the least bit bothered by juggling his sack, the tickets with their room number, and his friend's arm throw the ongoing halls. If anything, the damn people in his way and blocking the room numbers were pissing him off.<p>

"I think...Yeah, this is it," Axel said, pushing open a door and letting himself and Roxas in. It was a modestly small white-painted cubicle with two sets of wooden bunk beds and pipes lining the ceiling. He dropped his sack on the floor and offered his hand to the other two men in the compartment, who gave him a confused look but shook it anyway. Roxas, meanwhile, grinned deviously and climbed up onto the available top bunk.

"Hey there, I'm Axe—Hey, who said you get top bunk, punk?" Axel playfully punched at his friend, who rolled over laughing. He threw his bag on the bottom bunk and squeezed out of the room. "Let's go on deck?"

"Sure!" Roxas smiled and jumped down, waving politely at the two other men before following his redheaded friend out and closing the door behind him, leaving the two men to share an incredulous look as to what the hell had just transpired.

* * *

><p>Five floors up, in a luxurious parlor suite, Larxene was redecorating what she claimed to be the "typical, tasteless room" with her beloved personal library of insanely old, tattered books. She carefully unpacked them all from her various suitcases and called over one of her maids to help her move them to the polished, chestnut bookshelf.<p>

"If you drop any of them, Olette, I will have to throw you off this ship. Preferably in the back so the propellers can slice you to pieces." Larxene hummed softly, smiling in satisfaction at Olette's terrified expression.

"O-of course, Miss..."

Marluxia chuckled at the sight, walking in from the parlor carrying a bottle of Romanee Conti, crossing the room to place said bottle into a bucket of ice on an end table beside one of the three aesthetic couches.

"What a waste of munny," he shook his head at the books sprawled out across the room.

"What? Classic French literature or your 24,000 munny bottle of distasteful wine?" Larxene replied sharply, placing the books Olette handed delicately to her on top on the "for show" fireplace. A knock on the door interrupted whatever retort Marluxia was about to make. He called the visitor to enter, who politely opened the door and announced dinner before making a professional, swift exit. After the steward was gone, Marluxia made to turn back towards his fiancé, but she and her maid were already gone; retreated to her bedroom to dress, he supposed.

* * *

><p>"I dunno, Ax...I once heard if you stood on the railing, a big giant squid would come out of the water and bite your head off..."<p>

The sun was sinking quickly in the warm, orange sky, reflecting it's reddening golden rays across the vast, darkening sea, glimmers of light reflecting in sparkles off the surface. As if to top it all off, a peacefully soft strummed melody played in the near distance, which both boys hummed in approval. Axel had the best view possible, standing on the rail and leaning outward, the only thing saving him from toppling over into the freezing ocean was his grip on the pole beside him. Roxas had enough sense to _not_ stand on the railing of an accelerating ship, especially with the conflicting winds plotting against him.

"Who the _hell_ told you that?" Axel snorted. "Just come here. And don't worry, _I'll_ protect you from any evil, man-eating squids." Roxas scowled, but climbed up onto the rail regardless, clinging with his life on the other side of the pole. Though one look at the ocean, and his jaw dropped in awe.

"Wooooow...I can see the clock tower already!" He smiled up at Axel, "Very small, of course." Cautiously, he turned his gaze down to the water directly below them and shrieked. "SQUID! SEE! I TOLD YOU!" Noticeably, the background melody increased in speed a little...

Axel chuckled, "Rox, those are dolphins...I think..." Roxas leaped off the rail regardless and took refugee on a nearby bench, whimpering. The redhead shook his head, grinning. "Well, now that I've vanquished my enemy, I guess now I'm the KING OF THR WOOOOORLD~!" He cackled to himself, releasing his hold on the trusty pole to pump his fists into the air.

"Hey 'King of the world," get off the rail," a passing officer said in an official tone. The strums changed once more.

Axel frowned at the officer and jumped back on deck, slinking over to a hysterical Roxas. "Man, shut up," Ax stuck his tongue out and smacked the boy lightly on the head.

"Sure thing, _Your Majesty._" The music mellowed out again, and another soft chuckle other than Axel and Roxas's own laughter became audible. The boys shared a shrug and snuck over to the deck rail, peering over the side carefully. Down on the lower deck, a well-toned, shirtless mullet-head was chilling against the steps, strumming a few chords lazily on his...uniquely shaped guitar thing.

"What's with the background music?" Axel called down. The boy casually looked up and smirked, not missing a beat on his strumming, though he was the only one who could tell anyway.

"Oh? Does it displease the King?" Roxas exploded in a fit of giggles again.

"Ha! I like him already!"

The two made their way down to the whatever-player and royally introduced themselves. Apparently, his name was Demyx, and he played the most interesting looking sitar ever made in the history of ever. Axel thanked who ever was in charge for Roxas's naïve bluntness, for the kid asked the one question that was really bugging him.

"So..uh...what happened to your shirt?" Demyx looked down at himself, as if he, too, were wondering the same thing.

"I'm...not exactly sure," he said, scratching his cheek with a lazy smile, "I had it when I got on the ship...then I remember some girls came by and, uh..." he gave a wary look at Roxas, who blinked up at him in innocent interest. "Well, let's just say, when I woke up, I couldn't find it within my limited search time..." Axel gave a low, amused whistle.

"That's rough, man."

"Yeah..."

"I would offer you one of mine..but I don't think they would fit..." Axel indicated his own slim figure versus Demyx's slightly more built one. The musician crossed his arms.

"Hey, you calling me fat, Mr. Axel?" he teased.

It was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship. Axel could tell.

* * *

><p>Early the next day, Larxene was rudely awoken to unwanted breakfast summons. Ansem and Olette flitted about the room, opening and closing drawers and cabinets to gather together a socially acceptable morning outfit.<p>

"Don't give me that look, young lady," Ansem scolded, giving up on searching for clothes and accessories as he noticed Olette was doing a much better job than him. "You won't even be alone, another girl your age will be there."

"It's six o'clock in the morning. Fuck. Off." With those lovely morning words, Larxene pulled the covers over her head in a death grip and rolled over rebelliously. Ansem, used to her constant profanity in private, rolled his eyes.

"Please, everyone knows you have to go early to get the best food while it's still hot." At the muffled grumble, he turned to Olette and gave her an apologetic smile. "I'll leave you to see to her dressed and ready in ten." With that, he briskly swept from the room, closing the door swiftly behind him.

Olette shifted in place nervously for a moment before slowly walking over to the bedside.

"M-miss Larxe—"

"I'M UP, DAMNIT!"

Olette jumped back as Larxene threw the covers off grumpily, storming over to the neatly piled clothes and carelessly throwing them on. Dutifully, Olette rushed over to assist her.

* * *

><p>"She's the largest moving object ever made by man in all history..." Xehanort rambled on proudly, though Larxene wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him. Outwardly, she appeared to be listening intently to what the director was boasting about; inwardly, she was heavily criticizing all she could see. Like how the extravagant arched windows were far too high and overly detailed, taking away what little appeal they could've possibly given to the otherwise dull, sunny dining area. Now the only sense of aesthetics were the blissfully plain still art paintings placed strategically across the room so one who was not observant would think they were all different, yet Larxene could spot the painting to the left of her group was the mirror image of the painting off to the far right near the entrance. Apart from the copied paintings, there were seemingly healthy palms and rose bushes decorating the lonesome corners, though even Larxene could tell they were made of the finest plastics. Larxene inwardly scoffed. Everything was always so fake.<p>

A bang on the table brought Larxene's mind back into the conversation.

"And here she is, willed into solid reality," the ships constructor, Luxord, attempted the same level of boastfulness as his companion, but didn't pull it off as well. Convincingly enough to the others, yes, but very little fooled the blonde girl. Larxene's piercing green eyes fell over Luxord harshly. He looked as uncomfortable at the scene as she felt, though he kept his composure well enough. No one else seemed to notice his unease.

"Why are ships always called 'she?'" Aqua, the other girl at the table, asked aloud. She was a pretty little thing, a year or so older than Larxene, yet still quite new to the upper levels. How she managed to score an invitation to a breakfast with two of, probably, the most important people on this ship, Larxene could only imagine, her eyes subconsciously glancing down at the girl's fairly large cleavage for a moment before she rolled her eyes and reached for her small purse. Finding the object of her desire, Larxene waved Olette over to light her cigarette.

"Larxene," Ansem leaned over and muttered,"you know I don't like that." Larxene stared blankly at him, took a sip at her death stick, and blew a ghastly wave of smoke at him in reply, smiling softly. Beside her, Marluxia rolled his eyes and snatched the cigarette away from her.

"She knows," he stubbed it out. The waiters saved the putrid pinkhead from one of Larxene's infamous snide remarks, placing some sort of undercooked, glossed up meat on a decorated plate in front of them both. "I ordered you lamb, by the way. You weren't here when we ordered."

"And what if I don't like lamb?" she asked stiffly, scrunching her nose at the sight of her "meal." It wasn't even a meal. It was more like a fancy food sculpture made with the intent on winning a food sculpture contest of some sort. Not meant to be eaten, but to be seen.

Aqua watched them with a raised eyebrow, frowning. "Are you going to cut her meat for her, too, Marly?" Marluxia shot her a "Shut up" look, but she brushed it off, turning to Xehanort. "Were you the one who named the ship 'Titanic?'" she asked pleasantly. Larxene took back what she initially thought of Aqua. Perhaps she wasn't so bad...but one could still wonder anyway.

"Yes, that was me," Xehanort began his boastful tone again, "I wanted to convey sheer size. Size means security, luxury, and safet—"

"Do you know of Dr. Freud?" Larxene interrupted smoothly in her pristine nonchalant tone. Not waiting for an answer, she continued, "His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of interest to you." Xehanort gaped at her, though Luxord and Aqua sneakily stifled their laughter. Marluxia and Ansem, however, sent her disapproving pointed looks.

"Excuse me," Larxene muttered, rising from her seat with trained gracefulness before strolling out of the court.

"I apologize for her behavior," Ansem stated formally, "She's been a bit off lately."

"Really? I was under the impression that's how she usually is," Aqua murmured appreciatively, hiding her words with a sip at her tea. Luxord nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'll just have to start minding what she reads," Marluxia said with finality, cutting into his meat. And with that, they shifted back to praising Xehanort for his greatest [shared] achievement.

* * *

><p>Axel focused intently on his work, Roxas and Demyx—still shirtless—nosily peering over his shoulder and back at the father and daughter...then back at the drawing. With a few final touches, Axel blew off the stray charcoal dust and presented his work. Demyx gave a low whistle.<p>

"That's really good, man! Do you make any money off your drawings?" Demyx asked, flipping through Axel's other drawings in his..."sketchbook."

"Nah, I just draw for fun."

"But if you did, we'd be rich!" Roxas groaned, earning twin amused grins. Roxas ignored his friends, glancing over at a pretty auburn-haired girl he'd been eying nearly all morning.

"Sure...I'll sell my drawings..." Axel followed the boy's gaze, "if you actually go over and talk to that girl."

"W-what?" Roxas blushed. "But...But what if she doesn't speak English?"

"Smiles mean the same thing in every language," Demyx sang happily, pushing Roxas off in her direction.

"B-but! What do I say to her if she _does_ speak English?"

"Anything that doesn't involve sex!" Axel offered, giving a thumbs up. "Say she has nice hair or something!"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Demyx pushed Roxas a few feet before the boy willingly, yet reluctantly, walked on his own, giving nervous glances back at his friends who simply waved him on. Within a few minutes, he had managed to strike the girl up in conversation.

"Bet you five munny she slaps him silly," Axel teased. Demyx smirked in agreement.

An unfortunate steward walked down the steps from the first class area, firmly grasping onto several leashes as a flurry of dogs raced around the lower deck, finding their preferred "relieve area."

"Oh course," Demyx rolled his eyes, lifting up his trusty, enlarged sitar and strumming a few harmonic notes, "the first class doggies would come down here to take a shit."

"Well, could ya blame them?" Axel smirked, "this whole deck is just begging to be shit on. I think I might just shit up here."

"Please refrain yourself," a passing officer—now that Axel paid close enough attention, he realized it was the same officer who let him and Roxas on the ship _and_ the guy from the other day—rolled his eyes. Soon, he disappeared into the crowd.

"I swear, that guy is following me or something. Like he thinks I have lice...or something," Axel frowned, though Demyx just laughed, playing an upbeat tune.

A few minutes later, Roxas strolled back over to them with a flushed grin on his face.

"Her name is Kairi, and she does speak English, and I think I'm taking her to the crew party tomorrow night," he announced proudly. A few nearby fellows applauded him and wolf whistled, having nosily listened in shamelessly, though Roxas just bowed for them.

"Crew party?" Axel looked at him uncertainly. "I dunno, they usually serve beer there to anyone..." Roxas crossed his arms.

"Well if you're so worried, you can just come along," he pouted. Demyx looked over at them.

"Don't worry, Ax, I'll be there. I'm providing part of the music anyway," he smiled, changing songs. Axel still didn't look convinced, though. But Roxas was sending him a glare that said, "I'm going to go whether you want me to or not because I actually have a date and there's nothing you can possibly do to stop me," so Axel just sighed and agreed to it.

"But if you come back wasted and knocked up, don't come crying to me," Axel said, flipping through his sketchbook for a fresh page.

"...What?"

"Oh, so I'm guessing this means she didn't slap you right?"

"...What?"

Axel chuckled. "Good, now hold that face for me, will ya?" He got out his pencil and quickly started sketching. Demyx laughed at Roxas's priceless expression.

"That's five munny, by the way," Demyx sang, strumming carelessly.

* * *

><p>By nightfall, Larxene came to one conclusion: She fucking hated her life. Sure, the occasional realistic richies like Luxord and Aqua could make her day a little brighter, but in the end she was still stuck under Ansem's perfectionist supervision, and she was still stuck with a soon-to-be miserable future with equally perfectionist Marluxia; and so long as she was forced to be with those two, she'd always be subjected to the same, sorry excuses for "parties" in which the shallowest of all the shallow people in the world would gather nightly in their most expensive clothes and brag shamelessly about their greatest accomplishment of the day, flaunting their munny in every way possible.<p>

And yet, none of the mindless rich drones paid the least bit attention to the lone blonde girl staring blankly at the centerpiece on the table. None of them could hear her screaming on the inside, wishing to be anywhere but there, or even wishing for some form of acknowledgment other than the occasional, "Oh? You're marrying Marluxia? That's a lovely match."

Not one noticed her. Not even as she slyly slid her fork off the table and into her lap. Nor when she winced ever so slightly before returning her mask firmly in place as the fork pierced through her soft skin on her arm and small trickles of blood seeped out. It was now that she was grateful Olette convinced her to wear the red dress. No one could tell the difference anyway.

* * *

><p>The temperature sure went down into the freezing degrees, Axel thought as she pulled his coat tighter around him. It was probably around midnight; Roxas already retired for the night, while Demyx was called away for "band rehearsal," but Axel wasn't tired at all, so he remained on deck sketching until it was too dark to see what he was doing. So instead, he laid back on a bench and tried to see if he still remembered all the constellations.<p>

No such luck. All the stars looked the same to him.

Distantly, he heard rushed clanking of footsteps, but he ignored them, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it before laying back down.

"Hey! I think that's the Milky Way!" Axel chuckled quietly, blowing out smoke and watching in amusement as it quickly dispersed.

The footsteps grew louder though. Sighing, Axel sat up and rubbed his temples. It didn't occur to him that it wasn't a patrol officer stalking over to scold him for loitering outside until after the red blur rushed past him leaving husked sobs behind. He quickly snapped his head to the figure's direction, though all he could make out was the girl was running up another set of stairs towards the very back of the ship. After a minute, when he was certain no one was following her, he got up to his feet, jogging after her.

She was securely on the wrong side of the railing when Axel caught up to her.

_Shit!_

_'What am I supposed to say to not get someone to kill themself?' _Axel thought, cautiously walking towards her and taking this shortening cigarette out of his mouth.

"Don't do it," he said uncertainly. Was that the right thing to say? He wasn't sure, but he got her attention anyway.

She flinched at the voice, tightening her grip on the rail as she turned slowly to see who was there. Aside from her eyes red and puffy from obvious crying and her completely torn expression, she had a pretty little face.

"Don't come any closer!" She demanded, though her voice faltered as she turned back to the sea. "I'll let go..." Axel inched closer anyway.

"Come on, take my hand. I'll pull you back ov—"

"NO! Stay back or else I'll jump!" She turned to watch him, mustering together all her will to manage a weak glare. Axel inched forward, but when she leaned over towards the ocean, he gestured towards his cigarette, then over the rail. When she didn't seem to react, he stepped over closer to the rail and tossed the cigarette over. Eying her carefully, he shoved his freezing hands into his pockets.

"No you won't," he said calmly.

"What do you mean no I won't?" she challenged. "You don't know me!"

"You would've done it already," Axel replied simply, taking the chance to scoot closer. Though she just inched away on the rail.

"You're distracting me! Go away!"

Axel resisted the urge to smirk at that. Distracting her from suicide? Apparently she wasn't expecting an audience.

"What? You think I can just walk away and not care that some girl is trying to kill herself over here?" Axel shook his head and shrugged off his coat reluctantly. "If you jump, I'm jumping in after ya."

"Don't be stupid. The fall alone will kill you," she said shakily, staring down at the propellers. Axel shrugged, putting his foot on the rail as he worked on untying his shoes.

"It'll hurt, yeah. But," he glanced over at her carefully, "I'm more worried about that water being so cold..."

The slightest bit of fear swept over her face. She coughed before looked down at him.

"How cold?" she asked.

Axel looked over the rail, examining the water before replying, "Freezing. Give or take a few degrees." At her fearful expression, he pushed further. "And say you don't freeze or drown or die upon impact...then most likely you'll get caught in the propellers blades and, lemme tell ya, that doesn't sound like a fun way to go."

She gave him an incredulous look. "You're crazy."

He shrugged again. "Yeah, but...with all due respect, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here." Sensing the reality of it all was finally starting to sink in, he offered his hand again. "Come on, you don't want to do this."

With one last wavering glance at the watery grave below, she carefully turned herself around grabbed onto his hand, mostly for morale support.

"I'm Axel," he smiled at her, "Got it memorized?"

She snorted. "Larxene."

She was terrified, Axel could tell, as she shakily raised her foot to the next rail...

And slipped on her dress.

In the blink of an eye, her only chance of survival depended on Axel's ability to securely hold onto her as she dangled helplessly over the side of Titanic and screamed.

"Help me up!" she shrieked, not helping matters at all with her panicked flailing.

"Calm down!" Axel grasped her arm with both hands, pulling her upwards with all the strength he could muster.

"HOW CAN I BE CALM AT A TIME LIKE THIS?"

"Just calm down enough to focus! I need you to reach up and grab the rail!"

"Don't drop me!" She was crying again, and she looked like she hated it, but she was too scared to care.

"I've got you, I promise! Now reach up for the rail! You can do it, Larx!" Axel grunted as he strained himself to lift her up more, and he felt the relief instantly when she grasped onto the rail and started pulling half her weight. Working together, Larxene was able to get her feet back onto the bars (though her shoes had fallen into the ocean), and Axel grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back over onto the deck. Tumbling from the weight, they both toppled over onto the cold, iron deck, landing in what would certainly be a misunderstood position by anyone who happened to pass by at the time—

* * *

><p>"What's going on up here?" a voice asked, coming up the steps. Larxene froze, recognizing the voice instantly and weakly turning her head to face her fiancé. Though she didn't care that she was currently underneath another man, laying back flat against the deck with her damn dress riding up on her leg. If anything, the only things she could think about was how she was going to maim Olette for convincing her to wear the damn red dress, and how she was upset when the warmth left her upon Marluxia's threats.<p>

Within a few minutes, the Master of Arms, a large man named Lexaeus, arrived at the scene, handcuffing Axel. Xaldin brought over blankets for Larxene, who took them silently, and Marluxia's obnoxious friend, Setzer, loitered about, watching the scene with mild interest.

"How dare you lay a filthy hand on _my_ fiancee?" Marluxia glared daggers at Axel, who simply looked bored at his current situation, as if this had happened many times in the past.

"Marluxia, shut up. It was an accident," Larxene growled, stalking over.

"An accident?" Marluxia repeated, not believing a word of it. She forced a small laugh.

"Yes. Quite stupid, actually. I was leaning over to see the..." she glanced over at Axel, who mouth "propellers," "the propellers, and I slipped. Axel here grabbed me before I fell overboard, and he almost fell over himself." Marluxia stared at her, but she simply snarled, "So if you think punishing the man who save my life will win my affections, you are sorely mistaken."

Lexaeus looked down intimidatingly at the redhead. "Was that what happened?"

"Yup. That was it." Axel smiled cheerfully as he felt the handcuffs come undone. Instantly, he went to massage his wrists. Why they always insisted on putting those handcuffs on way too tight, he'd never understand.

"Well, the boy's a hero! Cheers! Back to our brandy, then?" Setzer asked hopefully, lighting a cigar. Marluxia nodded, slinging his arm around Larxene's waist and leading her back inside. "Umm..."

"What, Setzer?" Marluxia asked moodily.

"Aren't you going to give him anything?" Marluxia rolled his eyes and looked over at Xaldin.

"Twenty should do," he said, making once more to go inside. But Larxene elbowed him in the solar plexus and crossed her arms.

"Is that all I'm worth to you? Twenty munny?" she hissed. Marluxia gave an exasperated sigh.

"Fine! How about..." he turned and walked over to Axel, who finished retying his shoes. "Why don't you join us for dinner tomorrow night? I'm sure that'll be the most expensive meal you'll ever eat."

The invitation was not a friendly one, but Axel glanced over at Larxene once, who nodded encouragingly, and met Marluxia's discriminating glare.

"Sure. Why not?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **_*losing sleep over this*_

_Well, I got so much positive feedback for this, both here and on dA, I decided I'd ditch my original plan of forcing everything up until the sinking into this part and dividing it into several parts._

_So I guess this'll be..mmm...seven chapters at the most?_

_So this chapter, there's more movie dialouge. Cuz I like the movie's dialouge, it makes me laugh. XD_

_And for the most part, I'm not sure how exactly to transform a Rose statement into a Larxene statement when they're pretty much saying the same thing except in different tones. XDD_

_/fails_

_No lie, I'mma have fun with the next chapter. Cuz this chapter is way too serious. I mean like..suicide? Half the chapter, if it wasn't trio-comic relief, it was build-up-the-suicide Larx._

_XD_


	3. And So They Walk

**In case you've never seen the movie or are too lazy to reread the first two chapters (since it's been a while and all):**  
><em>Leon and his mostly female team of scientists are searching for the Kingdom Keychain, an infamous silver mouse-shaped pendent that vanished from history along with Titanic. Naturally, as they were broadcasting their recent wreckage finds, the very last Titanic survivor, Larxene, saw their t.v segment by mistake and gave them a call. Of course, Larxene is kind of a bitch, but Leon happily puts up with her so long as he can get information about the Keychain. Larxene is prompted to tell him what she knows, so she starts at the very beginning of her Titanic voyage. Because she wants to.<br>Insert a flashback sequence and an illogical jump from narrative perspectives and Larxene's tale comes to life, starting back in April, 1912.  
>Larxene is traveling first-class with her asshat of an uncle, Ansem, and her asshat of a fiancé, Marluxia. Despite the fact that she pretty much hates her shallow life, yet she knows nothing else aside from superficiality, Larxene becomes somewhat friends with Aqua, new money, and Luxord, the ship's architect.<br>Elsewhere, Axel, the only reason half of you are reading this story, wins third-class Titanic tickets for himself and his friend, Roxas. The two quickly becomes friends with the strangely shirtless sitar player, Demyx.  
>At some point, Larxene finally loses it and plans to off herself by jumping off the ship. As we've all seen Titanic, we all know that Jack Axel comes to the rescue and convinces Larxene that life if pretty awesome and she comes back over the rail. However, there are some technical difficulties in the "getting back over the rail" bit and for a moment Marluxia wants to castrate Axel or something. After clearing up all the confusion, Marluxia invites Axel to a nice first-class dinner the next night.<br>Which leads us up to the next day. Now back to Vexen._

* * *

><p>Vexen sat upon a sturdy clump of ice, hugging his knees to his chest and shivering a bit.<br>"'All in the name of science,' I said," he mocked himself bitterly.  
>And thus, he floated there.<br>On that steadily increasing clump of ice.  
>In the middle of the ocean.<br>Forever alone.  
>"Ah-CHOO!"<p>

* * *

><p>The next morning, Axel woke up to the sound of a loud <em>thump!<em> on the floor, followed accordingly by a groggy groan.  
>"How's the top bunk there, Rox?"<br>"Shut up," Roxas growled, getting onto his knees. "I rolled off."  
>"Really, now? I was under the impression that you jumped." Axel rubbed the morning off his eyes, missing the raised bemused eyebrow his younger friend was giving him.<br>"Jumped? Really? There's not enough head room up there!"  
>"See? That's stage one: Denial." The redhead put a hand on Roxas's shoulder and looked at him with a straight serious expression. "When the time comes, don't do it."<br>Roxas scowled at him. "I'll punch you," he threatened...not very threateningly.  
>"Thaaat's stage two; Anger," Axel grinned.<br>"I'm serious. I will get a stool, stand on it, and punch you in your face."  
>Axel just laughed lightly. "I...don't remember the other stages, so we'll just skip to stage five; Acceptance."<br>Roxas blinked at his friend blankly. Resisting the urge to point out that his friend, for once, did _not_ have something memorized, he instead went straight to the second thing that popped up in his mind. "Wait, you're accepting that I'm gonna punch you?"  
>"Something like that. But never mind that, I'm hungry!" Axel formally rolled out of bed and bumped his head on the low upper bunk, earning an evil victorious chuckle from the younger boy and annoyed snores from the other two bunk mates. After a quick outfit change and securing his sketchbook on his personnel, Axel quietly led Roxas out of the room.<br>Three steps into the hallway and the redhead realized that he had no idea where he was...

* * *

><p>"When you need a map to figure out a <em>boat<em>, you're on too big of a boat," Axel grumbled, taking a furious bite out of his bread and glaring out the window.  
>"Ship," Roxas corrected.<br>"Ship, boat, whatever. They both float and those map weren't helpful at all."  
>"Just remember that you're the one who got us the tickets." Roxas smiled innocently at his friend's glare.<br>"What's his problem?" a familiar mullet haired friend walked over to their table, casually sliding into the seat next to Roxas as if they were friends longer than just ten or so hours.  
>Just for the sake of something called character development in time-condensed stories or something like that.<br>Roxas smirked. "Oh, Ax is just a little steamed because he got us lost-"  
>"That map lied! I swear it did!" the redhead protested.<br>"Sure, Ax, blame the map." Roxas rolled his eyes and finished up his bowl of oats. Demyx let out a warm laugh.  
>"Don't worry, maps like to lie to me too!"<br>"Thank you!" Axel waved his arms dramatically, "At least someone here gets it!"  
>Then a variety of seemingly perfectly coincidental events occurred at once:<br>First, Axel and Demyx attempted to pull a simultaneous high five, but they both swung their arms the opposite direction and Demyx accidentally high-five'd Axel in the face. This in itself caused an instant reaction of Axel quickly flailing his arms away from himself and raising them up, while Roxas choked on his drink laughing and Demyx exploded in a rapid succession of apologies. However, Axel's spontaneous flailing resulted in him accidentally smacking a tray of food a passing server was carrying, causing the poor boy to fall backwards onto his bum and sending the tray-and the food-flying. Unfortunately, Axel and the others were sitting rather close to the entrance of the third class dining area, and the doors had flung open just as the tray full of food came hurling towards the ill-fated young lady who dared to enter coincidentally at this time. Now, half of the third class currently dining at that time would've maintained half of their living soul if it weren't a specific first class lady who had just neatly been attacked by bits of eggs and oats and splattered in juice and water.  
>Instead of making a scene, though, the girl simply brushed her sleeves and then glared directly at the only relatively important redhead in this story and walked a few steps closer to his table before stopping about a foot or two away.<br>"You," she stated tonelessly. Or perhaps that was her attempt at maintaining an upper-class tone and not kicking and screaming like a primpy bitch.  
>"Me?," Axel asked, smiling guiltily. The girl rolled her eyes and frowned in what appeared to be steadily increasing displeasure.<br>"Yes you, dumb-dumbs," she said. "Meet me outside." It wasn't a polite request, it was more of a straightforward demand. She could've added the impending "or else" to the statement, but it was generally implied. She didn't wait for a response; just as quickly as she came in, she turned on her heel and marched right out of the room with her pride held high. As if her upper body wasn't spotting food-related wetness and scraps and she accomplished some sort of amazing feat.  
>"Who was that?" Roxas asked, only mildly curious. He wasn't at all surprised that his friend already made a lady friend. He was quite good at that.<br>"Oh, emotionally unstable girl," Axel replied conversationally, quickly wiping his mouth with his napkin before getting up and brushing stray crumbs off his pants, and grabbing his sketchbook. Never know when that's gonna come in handy, yanno?  
>"What's her name?"<br>"Hey wait, where are you going?"  
>"Outside? Reemmber? Two seconds ago? Angry lady walked in? Food thing? Five hive to the face? No? Okay then." Axel held open the door and waved to them, "I'll give you details later, okay?"<br>"You better," Roxas pouted. "Or else I'll definitely get that stool!"  
>"Ha ha," the redhead said as he smiled and left the cafeteria.<br>"And don't forget about the party tonight!" Demyx called after him before he was gone. After the doors closed again, mullet-head turned towards blondie and sighed. "And then there were two."  
>"And then there was one." Roxas took another bite out of his toast before promptly getting up out of his seat.<br>"Where are you going?" Demyx asked, frowning a little.  
>"I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go spy on them," Roxas said with a devious grin. Demyx laughed and tagged along shamelessly.<p>

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry again about your clothes," Axel apologized for what was maybe only the first time as the pair made their way to the top deck. Or rather, Axel was trailing a few feet behind Larxene, who seemed to know this place like the back of her hand and would <em>not<em> slow down for the life of a dying kitten or something.  
>Either that, or she simply knew the most efficient way to get from Point A to Point B and no where else in between.<br>And it was fortunate for Axel that she seemed to be completely ignoring him for the most part so he wouldn't be penalized for rambling off in his head as opposed to responding to whatever it was she was saying...  
>Wait...<br>Axel blinked back into reality to find Larxene staring blankly at him-yet he had a feeling that if so many people weren't around she'd have probably been glaring daggers at him. And then she'd probably take the daggers and stab him just to make sure he knew she was annoyed with him.  
>Axel didn't know why, but she seemed to give off a "piss me off and I'll cut you" aura.<br>_Charming._  
>And as he concluded his mini internal analysis, Axel noted that she was now definitely glaring at him.<br>_Um..._  
>"Sooo..." Axel scratched at his head. "Lovely weather, isn't it?"<br>"It's drizzling."  
>"That it is," Axel agreed, scratching his chin and narrowing his eyes investigative at the light rain drops. Larxene seemed deeply unamused. In the sense that her unamusement came from the very bottom of her heart. "Maybe it'll rain today."<br>She twitched. Subtly, but it was there. "It _is_ raining. Right now."  
>"That's a matter of perception. Some people say it's raining when it's drizzling and others say it's drizzling when it's drizzling."<br>"That may be so, but the fact of the matter still remains that water is falling from the sky, and thus it's raining."  
>"Yeah, but snow is technically water and that falls from the sky, so following your logic, snow is also rain."<br>"Well snow _is_ rain, it's just frozen."  
>"And yet the meteorologists differentiate snow from rain and rain from drizzle—"<br>"Oh for the love of—," Larxene cried out in frustration. "Change the damn subject."  
>It wasn't long before they were both glaring at each other, though Axel was giving off more of a mocking glare and Larxene was giving off a glaring glare.<br>"Sooo..." Axel began again, "Lucy-"  
>"<em>Larxene<em>," Larxene corrected harshly.  
>"Whatever. I'm guessing you're not a morning person?"<br>At that, her facial expression finally changed.  
>Legitimately.<br>For a moment her perma-scowl dropped and her perma-glare was replaced with non-narrowed eyes and her eyebrows rose ever so slightly as if she were _confused_ as to why anyone would ever say that to her.  
>In fact, Axel reasoned, she almost looked like a decent human being.<br>_Almost._  
>"How do you figure that?" She asked, and Axel wanted nothing more than to violently introduce his hand to his forehead.<br>He wanted to reply with, "Well, you kind of seem like an unusually anger-prone lady of witch-like qualities," but he didn't think that would go down to well, so he instead went with the safer choice of words:  
>"Well...you know...you seem, uh, tired."<br>Yeah...  
>"Oh," she said as her face returned to her standard of normal. "I woke up early today, that's why."<br>At that, Axel had to grin. Just a little. "Why'd you wake up early, Miss First Class?" he teased.  
>"Why the hell do you think, <em>Asshole<em>?" she huffed in annoyance and stormed off, though Axel followed closely behind.  
>"It's <em>Axel<em>, got it memorized?"  
>"<em>Whatever,<em>" she replied, mocking him. A devious grin slowly crept to her lips.  
>Axel feigned one of her glares and, for a second, they were silently trying to express their hatred at each other more than the other.<br>And then they broke the mood in a fit of giggles. 

* * *

><p>As the day wore on, the duo circled around the perimeter of the upper decks what seemed like a thousand times. Axel made a habit of checking his watch whenever Larxene turned her head and calculated that they were walking and talking for six hours straight.<br>Well, talking is a polite way of wording what went down. It was more like a private investigator interrogation:  
><em>"Where are you from?" she had asked.<br>"Twilight Town," he had answered.  
>"So you're going home?"<br>"Unless this ship is suddenly changing it's course to, I dunno, Traverse Town or something, then yes I am."  
>"What do you do for a living?"<br>"Odd jobs, mostly. Like killing bees. Damn bees..."  
>"Wasn't that friend of yours—the one with the mullet—running around without a shirt yesterday?"<br>"Demyx? Yeah, some fangirl took it, I think."  
>"And he's steerage, correct?"<br>"We also appreciate the term 'third-class', though I'm particularly fond of 'the unfortunate poverty ridden population.'"  
>"Oh, how cute, they teach you sarcasm in public school."<br>"Yeah, we learn from the masters; We often take field trips to rich areas to observe the first-class folk in their natural habitat."_  
>On and on it went until Axel dared to ask her a question in return and she responded by crossing her arms and telling him, "That's inappropriate of you."<br>"Whatever you say, Buggy."  
>"<em>Buggy?<em>" she repeated, raising an eyebrow as though to question his mental capabilities. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
>"It's called a 'nick-name,' got it mem-"<br>"Yes I 'got it memorized,' and that's not what I meant and you know it!"  
>Axel simply laughed and shook his head lightly."Well you have an interesting choice of hairstyle there, Buggy. It's only fitting you have a name that properly accompanies it," he explained, mimicking her air of superiority. Larxene merely clenched her jaw and grinned bitterly.<br>"Says the one with the blood red hair that looks as of it could stab whomever dares to get too close."  
>Axel pretended to look shocked and looked around him and the other passengers before facing her again with a pseudo-hurt expression. "Who, me?" He laughed. "Nah, it's actually really soft...well, aside from the hair gel which makes it kind of rock hard...but other than that."<br>"No, _Spiky_. You've lost. Give it up already."  
>"Now see, it's not as cool when you do it. Nick-names are more of a poor person thing." Axel walked away from the rail to sit down on an empty bench, setting his sketchbook down beside him. He stretched his legs briefly before relaxing into a partial recline.<br>"Excuse me?"  
>"Well what do you rich people call each other when you're friends or something?"<br>"We're not friends," Larxene immediately replied. Instinctively, no?  
>"Or something," Axel repeated lazily, waving her off.<br>Larxene blinked in thought as she leaned back with her posterior facing the rail. "We call each other by first name, I suppose."  
>"Then I guess you'll just have to call me 'Axel,'" Axel smiled. He motioned for her to join him on the bench, but she stayed where she was.<br>"Right," Larxene furrowed her brow and frowned, as if in deep concentration, "_'Ack-shell.'_"  
>"That was beautiful. I give you an 8."<br>"I try," she replied shortly.  
>"Is that the best of what you've learned in finishing school? <em>Insults 101?<em>"  
>She gave a short laugh. "Ha, no. Insults and vulgar language are generally frowned upon-"<br>"So you've had no practice? Oh, you poor soul!" Axel quickly got his feet and looked over the rail, scanning the crowd.  
>"What are you doing?" Larxene asked, slightly concerned. Death upon whomever embarrasses her in public.<br>"Aha! There!" Axel said, pointing to his friends who seemed to have long given up on trying to figure out how to get to the upper decks to spy on them. Demyx was strumming away on his oddly-shaped sitar and Roxas staring right up at his redheaded friend.  
>Larxene followed the direction of Axel's pointing to Roxas' waving to them. "What about him? He's a friend of yours, right?"<br>"Right! And he needs an insulting nick-name," Axel smiled.  
>"...What?"<br>"The fun part of nick-names is that they poke fun at your flaws...for the most part anyways. Some people have nick-names that just kind of pop up because of random events," he explained.  
>"Isn't that a rude thing to say to a friend?" Poor Larxene. She seemed so confused.<br>"That's why it's between friends because they know you're joking! Got it memorized?"  
>"Okay...so what? You want me to make a nick-name for him?"<br>"That is correct!"  
>Larxene glanced down at Roxas for two seconds. "Blondie," she stated.<br>Axel's smile dropped. "That's terrible."  
>"But I thought it was supposed to be—"<br>"No, not rude-terrible, _terrible_-terrible! I could call you 'Blondie' and it would work. No no, try again!"  
>She pouted her lips and crossed her arms, examining the boy again. "Shortie."<br>"No."  
>Another minute passed.<br>"Puppy." She huffed and turned her head, making it clear that was her final answer.  
>"You're gonna have to explain that one to me," Axel said, smiling a bit.<br>"I don't know, he's jumping around all excited and...It reminded me of a hyperactive puppy," she explained frustratedly.  
>"Well, third time's the charm," Axel said before bowing respectfully towards her. "You have done well, young Padawan."<br>Larxene just stared at him. "What?  
>"You're killing me, woman," he sighed.<br>Her face dropped. "Sorry..." she said quietly. Axel looked up at her .  
>"Something wrong?" he asked.<br>"No..It's just..." Larxene looked over at Axel's friends. "You didn't tell anyone about last night, did you?"  
>Axel raised his arms in defense. "No ma'am. Nor do I plan to."<br>"Good."  
>"Why? Do you wanna talk about it?"<br>"No." She turned on her heel and went to sit on the bench blindly, sitting on his sketchbook in the process and scowling in response. "What the hell is this?" she asked, reaching for the object in question and flipping through the pages.  
>"That's called a sketchbook." Axel answered, sitting down next to her.<br>"What do you do? Draw?"  
>"That is generally what they're used for, yes."<br>She leered at him. He merely smiled in return.  
>"Do you make money off of these?"<br>"Is that your way of saying you like them?" Axel teased.  
>"Oh yes, I adore drawings of naked woman," Larxene responded sarcastically, though a man passing by gave her a weird look, causing Axel to burst out into laughter.<br>"Oh shut up," she grumbled.  
>"So do you like art?"<br>"Not really, I'm more for prose than doodles," she closed the book and returned it to him, though he just placed it on floor below him.  
>"Marquis de Sade and Freud?" he asked.<br>She seemed mildly impressed. "Yes, how did you...?"  
>"You seem like the type of girl who likes to psychologically and physically fuck with people."<br>"Charming as always," she rolled her eyes at him, but a small smile formed nontheless.  
>"Ha! See? She smiles when misfortune is mentioned!"<br>"Oh shut it!" she laughed. 

* * *

><p>As sunset neared, Larxene led Axel to the general vicinity to where dinner would soon take place, but took him no further, partly because the area was closed off.<br>Then, of course, there was the fact that the two were walking with linked arms, and subconsciously Larxene did not want any of the other first-classers to see her accompanied by a third-classer.  
>"Well Larxene,: Axel started as the two found themselves back on the high decks. "It's nearly sunset and you've asked just about everything there is to ask a person in one day, but I've yet to ask you anything."<br>"And?" she asked, figuring where this was headed.  
>"Well, you seem to know a whole lot about me now, but I don't know too much about you," he said simply. "What if someone makes a reference to you at dinner and I don't understand because all I know of you is how you are now?"<br>She let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. I suppose you could ask one question."  
>"One question?"<br>"Better make it a good one."  
>"Right...well then..." Axel untangled himself from her and studied her long and hard. "Hmm..." he said in thought. Larxene put her hands on her hips, waiting for him to come up with something.<br>"Well?" she asked, losing her patience.  
>After a minute or so.<br>"So...your fiancé...what's his name...Marly?"  
>Larxene tensed. "Marluxia. Continue."<br>"Right, Marluxia...You're only marrying him for his hair, right? Like, you don't actually love him, do you?"  
>"I'm not marrying him because of his hair," she answered, shaking her head at his idiocy.<br>"That's one one answer," Axel probed.  
>"Which is what I agreed to," she countered.<br>"No, you agreed to one question. The question I asked had two parts."  
>"You asked two questions!"<br>"Well why won't you just answer the second?"  
>"Because it's..."<br>"Improper?" Axel suggested.  
>"None of your business," she snapped.<br>"So that's a no, then?" Axel noted. She glared at him in response.  
>"Don't be naïve, Axel. Only fools marry for <em>love<em>." she stated bitterly, remembering a quote from her late mother.  
>"I am quite foolish," Axel thought out loud.<br>Larxene looked at him as though he were mental. But her face softened nonetheless. "I hate you, Axel."  
>"Ouch," he frowned at her. "Why?"<br>"You don't have standards to live by," she murmured, ducking her head quickly last minute to hide her reddening cheeks.  
>Axel grinned. "Well in that case, I'm flattered."<br>"Larxene!" a nearing voice called. The lady in question raised her head to the source.  
>"Aqua," she replied when her blue-haired friend approached them. "How are you?"<br>"I'm fine, just running all over the place looking for you!" She smiled.  
>"Why?"<br>"Oh, well, your uncle is looking for you. He's not too happy with you since you never showed up for—"  
>"Lunch! I totally forgot!" Larxene rubbed her temples. "Oh, I can't believe I forgot about that." She looked over at Axel and explained, "We had arrangements with the Captain."<br>"Ahh," he said intelligently.  
>"Larxene!" a more violent voice boomed. Larxene shrunk a little bit as she turned to face her uncle.<br>"Uncle..."  
>"Where have you been?" He glanced at the redhead. "And who's this supposed to be?"<br>"This is—"  
>Luckily as fate would have it, the dinner trumpets went off, providing a perfectly timed distraction. Larxene forced a smile and linked arms with Ansem.<br>"Shall we get dressed for dinner, Uncle?" she asked, dragging the angry man away.  
>Axel stood back and smiled and waved at the blonde girl when she turned her head to him mouthing an apology.<br>"So you're the boy from last night, right?" Aqua asked politely.  
>"The name's Axel, got it memorized?" he replied kindly to her.<br>Aqua smiled. "Yes, I've heard quite a lot about you. Marluxia's been grumbling about you increasingly throughout the day," she gave a short giggle and then examined his clothing. "You wouldn't happen to need to borrow some dress clothes, would you?"  
>The redhead looked down at himself. "I'm guessing that might be a good offer to accept," he mused.<br>Aqua laughed lightly. "Yeah. Come on, my boyfriend has a spare hat...might fit you..." She took another glance at his slim figure. "With some hemming," she added.

* * *

><p><span>AN: _Holy sh__it, an update! I didn't even think that was possible anymore!_

_I hate this chapter. So. So. So much._

_Luckily the next chapter is my favorite part of the entire damn movie, so it's all good. :)_

_And because I felt guilty about not working on this in like...a yeah, I posted up a poll on dA (my dA is kairiwilson1, byw. For any other those who love me or some stupid shit like that~ jk, ilu)._

_So...I got a lot of pervy watchers, so the smut will be added to this story._

**_Feel free to cast you own vote via comment. So far it's 10 to 7 on the smut in or out vote. XD_**


	4. Letter of Revision

Dear my darling readers,

I am terribly, awfully, horrendously apologetic for whatever inconvenience I may have cause you when you clicked on this chapter with such excitement only to find that it was not a long awaited update. Instead, this is simply a note asking to direct your attention to my profile page.

It is, however, understandable that some people are simply too lazy to click to the author's profile. I should know: I am one of those people. So for lazy bums like me, I shall address the gist of all the information you will find on my profile here, emphasized in bold.

**This story is going to undergo major revisions, including rewrites.**

**Such revisions have not begun, so they will take time.**

**I will try to balance between the revisions so the stories update evenly.**

It should be noted that I am in college now (yay!), so that takes the main priority of my life. But I have enough free time to easily take on three stories for rewrite. Right now, the goal is to update each story at least once a month, starting in March 2013.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns (or you wish to flame me fur the lulz), feel free to do so~

I assure you I am not shitting you this time,

Le Kaikai~


End file.
